Reason Foundation

CA High Speed Rail Costs up Over 50 Percent

An new analysis of CA High Speed Rail Authority documents by Californians for Responsible Rail Design calculates that the costs of Phase 1--Los Angeles to San Francisco, has shot up over 50 percent.

In 2009, legislators withheld money from the Authority until they finally produced a business plan inDecember. The revised business plan showed costs of $43 billion and required higher fares and moreprivate investment, which would divert system profits to equity investors instead of towards systemextensions north and south.

Our analysis, based solely on official and publicly available Authority documents, determines thecurrent project costs are approximately $65 billion.